Ground enclosure



July 2, 1957 P. E- COOK ll, ET AL GROUND ENCLOSURE Filed Jiily 25, 1955 PAUL E. COOK. 22 Pig]. 1?. sou 1125 ATTORNEY United States Patent Ofiice 2,797,896 Patented July 2, 1957 GROUND ENCLQSURE Paul E. Cook Ill and Paul R. Sollars, Phoenix, Ariz.

Application July 25, 1955, Serial No. 523,974

6 Claims. (Cl. 256-25) This invention relates to a ground enclosure that is particularly adapted as protection for sleepers in insect-, pestand reptile-infested areas but may be used also as an enclosure generally, for instance, play pens, pools, etc.

An object of the invention is to provide a knock-down structure that may, therefore, be readily transported from place to place and which, when erected, provides a ground enclosure or frame that offers the protection mentioned. 1 "Another object of the invention is to provide an enclosure or frame of the character referred to that is comprised of a complement of inter-fitted or -nested elements that may be arranged in rectangular form.

'A'further object of the invention is to provide an enclosure of the character referred to that may be readily staked to the ground to maintain both its erected form and its position on the round.

The invention also has for its objects to provide such means that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description. However, the drawing merely shows and the following description merely describes, one embodiment of the present invention, which is given by way of illustration or example only.

In the drawing, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

Fig. 1 is a broken plan view of a ground enclosure according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view as taken on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a similarly enlarged horizontal and fragmentary sectional view taken at a corner of said enclosure.

Fig. 4 is an exploded plan view showing the elements of said enclosure that comprise a corner thereof.

The enclosure that is illustrated comprises, generally,

a complement of similar side wall plates 5, a complement of generally similar top frame elements 6, a set of corner elements 7, two or more stakes 8 to engage intermediate portions of the enclosure and stake the same to the ground, and a set of stakes 9 to engage and stake the corners of the enclosure to the ground.

The plates 5 and elements 6 and 7 may be made of various materials of which sheet steel, aluminum, plastic and fiber glass are examples. Durability and reasonable strength and form retention are desired properties. Practice has shown that thin gauge galvanized sheet steel is not only satisfactory but also relatively inexpensive.

As best seen in Figs. 2 and 3, each plates has upper and lower edges, respectively, It) and 11, the upper edge to receive elements 6, and the lower edge to rest upon or slightly enter the ground, as shown. One side edge 12 of each plate 5 is plain while the opposite edge is provided with a groove or seat 13 into which the edges 12 of adjacent plates are engaged. In this case, said grooves or sea-ts 13 are formed by first doubling back a part 14 tightly against plate 5 and then forwardly bending the end 15 of said part 14. The mentioned groove or seat is defined between part 14 and end 15 and is open at the end of the plate.

It will be evident that two or more such plates may be frictionally eonnectedby their adjacent edges, as best seen in the lower right hand portion of Fig. 3. These connected plates constitute the sides and ends of the enclosure shown in Fig. 1.

The elements 6 are generally of angle cross-sectional form, each being formed to have a horizontal flange 16, a vertical flange 17, and a reversely bent flange 18 between which and the flange 17 is formed a bottom open groove or seat 19. Said grooves 19 are receptive of the upper edges 10 of plates 5. When applied as shown in Fig. 2, the ends of elements 6 overlap (see Fig. l) to approximately the same degree that plates 5 interfit.

The intermediate elements 6those that extend along the sides and endsare generally similar and as described above. The corner elements (Fig. 4) are somewhat differently formed. One such corner element has its vertical flanges 17 and 18 removed at one end so that its horizontal flange 16 may extend beneath the horizontal flange of the other corner element. The latter element is formed with a slit 20 transversely through flange 18 and located so as to be aligned with the groove 19 of the element 6 with which it forms the corner.

Each corner element 7 (Figs. 3 and 4) is formed as a vertical member that has an included right angle between its sides 21 and 22. Side 21 is formed to be similar to the ends of the wall plate elements 5 that have edges 12. Side 22 is formed to be similar to the opposite ends of the plate elements and, like the latter, have parts 14 and 15 and grooves or seats 13.

It will be understood that said corner elements connect the wall plate elements at the corners, the interflt of the parts being evident from Fig. 4. The purpose of slits 20 can now be seen, the same accommodating the upper portion of the corner elements.

When it is realized that the wall thickness of the abovedescribed elements and plates is small and that grooves 13 are ordinarily closed, although readily opened to receive an edge 12, it will be clear that the three-ply portions of the wall plates and the corner elements will as readily fit into the grooves of the elements 6 as will the single ply portions. Slightly greater deflection of flanges 18 may occur, but the parts will readily connect up.

The size of the frame or enclosure will depend on the length and number of wall plates uesd. Hence, there is great flexibility as to size. While the structure has good strength and rigidity particularly because of the horizontal flanges 16, the same is rendered more stable by stakes 8 and 9, each provided with a flange 23 engageable over the fold that connects flanges 17 and 18 and a sharppointed pin 24 that mounts said flange Z3 and is enterable into the ground, as in Fig. 2. The intermediate stakes 8 each have a single flange 23, while the corner stakes 9 each are provided with two such flanges so as to engage both corner elements 6.

After the enclosure is erected, the stakes may be applied not only to anchor said enclosure but also to partly press the lower edges of wall plates 5 into the ground.

While the foregoing has illustrated and described what is now contemplated to be the best mode of carrying out the invention, the construction is, of course, subject to modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is, therefore, not desired to restrict the invention to the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but to cover all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An enclosure comprising a frame formed-of end interconnected wall plates, comer-elementsinterconnecting the wall plates at the corners, and framing-elements in end interconnection and interfitted with the upper edges of the wall plates and corner elements, the wall plates and the corner elements each having aside-open seat adjacent a side edge, and the sideedges of adjacent plates being frictionally engaged in said seats.

2. An enclosure comprising a frame formed of endinterconnected wall plates, corner'elements interconnecting the walleplates at the corners, and framing elements in end interconnection and interfitted with the upper edges of the wall plates and corner elements, said-framing elements having an angle cross-sectional shape comprised of horizontal and vertical flanges, and said wall plates'and corner elements each having a side open seat adjacent a side edge, whereby the side edges of the wall plate and corner elements can be frictionally interengaged.

3. An enclosure comprising a frame formed of endinterconnected Wallplates, corner elements interconnecting the Wall plates at-the corners, and framing elements in end interconnection and interfitted with the upperedges of the wall plates and corner elements, said framing'elements having an angle cross-sectional shape comprised of horizontal and vertical flanges, and the vertical flanges having bottom-open seats therein, the upper portions-of the wall plates being frictionallyengaged in said seats.

'4. An enclosure according to claim 3: a setof stakes 4- having ends adapted to be entered into the ground and provided with portions in overstanding engagement with the vertical flanges of the framing elements.

5. An enclosure comprising a frame formed from a plurality of interconnected wall plates, each plate having a longitudinal groove adjacent one side edge, said groove forming a seat for an adjacent wall plate, whereby a side edge of the second wall plate can be frictionally engaged with the seat in the first wall plate, and a plurality of corner elements for interconnecting two transverse rows of wall plates, said corner elements also having longitudinal grooves adjacent the side edges for frictionally engaging the side edges of the adjacent wall plates of each row.

6. An enclosure according to claim 5: including framing elements having their ends interconnected and being interfitted with the upper edges of the wall-plates and corner elements, said framing elements having an angle cross-sectional shape consisting of horizontal and vertical flanges.

References Cited in the file of-this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,930,404 Wagner Oct. 10, 1933 2,475,416 Williams July 5, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 215,529 Great Britain MaylS, 1924 

